Ang Dabawenyo

The past years’ Kadayawan sa Dabaw celebrations, it’s been thought, have veered away from the authentic spirit of this most important of Davao’s festivals. People have started talking about how ‘commercialized’ the Kadayawan has become over the years. And this probably explains the knee-jerk reaction by this year’s organizers — their unexpected move to change the festival’s schedule.

The city officials responsible for Kadayawan 2007 have reasoned that, since this festival is all about the harvest season, then it should be celebrated during the actual time of harvest, which is early August. This was monumentally unwise. But it’s a good thing that the festival highlights (the Indak-Indak and the floral float parade) were kept on the same period as usual (middle of August).

A very positive development in the 22nd-year celebration is the clear focus on Davao’s “cultural minorities”, and this is verbalized in this year’s theme: “Lumadnong Kagikan, Mabungahong Kinaiyahan, Gasa sa Kahitas-an“. If you notice in the Kadayawan schedule, the 2-week-long festivities will feature celebrations by the various traditional tribes that make Davao their home.

This will certainly bring back the soul of the Kadayawan sa Dabaw (”beauty / goodness of Davao”).

Here’s a bit of history. Before Davao celebrated the Kadayawan (accented on the last syllable), the festival was called “Apo Duwaling” — a thanksgiving by Dabawenyos for Mt. Apo, the durian, and the waling-waling; of course the Philippine Eagle was also included, albeit not in the name.

Here’s a photo I found from a documentation of the 20th Kadayawan festival.